Everyone needs a Mr. Nobody in their house!
Mr. Nobody
I know a funny little man,
As quiet as a mouse,
Who does the mischief that is done
In everybody’s house!
There’s no one ever sees his face,
And yet we all agree
That every plate we break was cracked
By Mr. Nobody.
‘Tis he who always tears out books,
Who leaves the door ajar,
He pulls the buttons from our shirts,
And scatters pins afar;
That squeaking door will always squeak,
For prithee, don’t you see,
We leave the oiling to be done
By Mr. Nobody.
He puts damp wood upon the fire,
That kettles cannot boil;
His are the feet that bring in mud,
And all the carpets soil.
The papers always are mislaid,
Who had them last but he?
There’s not one tosses them about
But Mr. Nobody.
The finger marks upon the door
By none of us are made;
We never leave the blinds unclosed,
To let the curtains fade.
The ink we never spill; the boots
That lying round you see
Are not our boots, – they all belong
To Mr. Nobody.
-Anonymous
This article was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 11:09 am and is filed under Countries & Cultures, English, Languages, Mr. Nobody, Poems, Poetry, United Kingdom, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
29 Responses to “Mr. Nobody – A Poem”
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May 23rd, 2010 at 9:44 pm
can you explain to me who is mr nobody it important for my scrapbook i must sent it tomorrow plese tell me who is mr nobody
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:56 pm
I believe it can have two interpretations:
1) Mr. Nobody is the person who gets blamed for everything that goes wrong in the house, but he’s really imaginary. It’s the people in the house doing the “bad” things, but they blame it on Mr. Nobody.
2) Mr. Nobody is an elf sort of figure from mythology. They are known to make mischief. I saw this song in my daughter’s piano book and it had a picture of a little elf-like man.
August 15th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
can you tell me what is the theme of poem Mr.Nobody…..please tell me cause i have an exam tomorrow….
January 13th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
by the way. the author is not unknown. it’s by Walter De la Mare.
January 13th, 2011 at 10:58 pm
Hi Jodi,
I’m curious what your source is about De la Mare? I can’t find any reference to him being the author of Mr. Nobody.
-Lisa
March 27th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
There are some more verses to this somewhere as I remember reciting it as a child and there were definitely 5 verses. This was almost 50 years ago and it was from the children’s book of recitations.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:50 am
My interpretation is very simple, Mr. Nobody is the person who keeps in doing wrong but does not admit to anybody when blamed…that’s why he is Mr. Nobody.
November 29th, 2011 at 11:23 am
to lisa…i just want to say…thank you for the infomation..nice the day!
November 29th, 2011 at 11:25 am
the mr nobody is mouse right?
November 29th, 2011 at 11:37 am
I don’t think Mr. Nobody is a mouse. He’s more like a little dwarf. There is much folklore about the little people who create mischief in your house.
But another interpretation is what Florida said above… whoever does wrong in your house claims it wasn’t them… so it was “Mr. Nobody”.
January 12th, 2012 at 9:26 am
Could you please describe about mr.nobody?please…
February 11th, 2012 at 1:15 am
What if “mr nobody” is actually a spirit, coz I’ve seen cases were mischief was done in one’s room that was locked and no one else had any spare key to room and d door wasn’t forced open and d person was so sure he didn’t do that which was done in d room.
May 5th, 2012 at 9:42 am
I think ‘mr nobody’ is actually a sarcastic way of blaming the. Person who’s actually responsible for all the mischiefs but for some reason,will not admit it.He is likened to a mouse.
September 11th, 2012 at 11:11 pm
what is the poem about?
September 15th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
This poem makes sense, but I wonder who was the author of this poem. I can’t find anything about Mr. Walter Dela Mare, but whoever made this, his a GENIUS! it really makes sense. :)
September 23rd, 2012 at 12:24 am
Why is Mr. Nobody as quiet as a mouse?
June 16th, 2013 at 9:07 am
Pardon, may i know what are the character traits for each stanza of the poem? Its really impotant
August 2nd, 2013 at 8:14 pm
Since Walter De la Mare also wrote a number of ghost stories I believe Mr. Nobody is a ghost, perhaps one of a child, as sad as that is.
Walter De la Mare
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_de_la_Mare
August 24th, 2014 at 2:24 am
I believe the author of Mr. Nobody is Elizabeth Prentiss. It is definitely not Walter de la Mare since he was not born when the poem was written. See this website for more info: http://moreloveenterprises.com/_mrnobody.html
Thank you for your fun and helpful website.
May 4th, 2015 at 5:18 am
Why does everyone say that Mr.Nobody has done all the mischief at home?
May 24th, 2015 at 9:48 pm
Mr.Nobody is nobody. These people made him up so they can blame him for all their wrongs. It makes sense. “That squeaking door will always squeak,
For prithee, don’t you see,
We leave the oiling to be done
By Mr. Nobody.” If Mr.Nobody has done all this, then why trust him with oiling a door?
the boots
That lying round you see
Are not our boots, – they all belong
To Mr. Nobody. Honestly, How many boots does he own?
February 7th, 2016 at 8:12 pm
If Mr Nobody was somebody, he wouldn’t be nobody. I can remember this poem from my schooldays. I am now 85.
September 20th, 2016 at 10:53 am
What would you do if you caught Mr Nobody and reason you caught him?
October 9th, 2017 at 5:15 am
In 1851, George Prentiss became the pastor of Mercer Street Presbyterian Church in New York City.[7] Though Elizabeth struggled with chronic health problems, she went on to have three more healthy children. “Little Little Lou’s Sayings and Doings, published in 1868, included her poem “Mr. Nobody” which went on to become a children’s classic. The poem is often mistakenly attributed to “anonymous” or the later poet Walter de la Mare.[8] Her first book of stories, Little Susy’s Six Birthdays, written in just ten days, was published in 1853.[9] In 1856, following the nearly fatal illness of her daughter Minnie, she wrote the hymn “More Love to Thee.”[10]
-From Revolvy
October 9th, 2017 at 1:01 pm
Thanks for sharing that Yasha!
The book “Little Little Lou’s Sayings and Doings” can be found online with the poem Mr. Nobody in it. (Click link to access the book.)
May 1st, 2018 at 9:37 pm
Why do you think the author wrote the last lines in each stanza very similar?
June 8th, 2018 at 3:55 pm
I remember Mr. Nobody from when I was a child and it showed a man in tails and a top hat but the collar of the coat covered his face.
May 9th, 2019 at 8:36 pm
Please can you tell me 6 moral lessons
from the poem?
April 28th, 2020 at 6:09 pm
Seriously 😂
Pretty sorry for Mr.Nobody
Thanks so much Mama Lisa 🌸💐